Kinniken wrote:Alongside those repeating missions you are doing there are also main missions that move the story forward. Maybe you missed one. Did you take the alien to that hospital?

I think I did yes but I wasnt reading carefully enough, does that mean harkan is now the empires?I'm unsure/forgot what the goal was of the campaign, and assumed those wepaons deliveries would flip the harkan system to our terra side

The weapon deliveries don't, they are just side missions. The main storyline does. My guess is that you did not go back and pickup the alien. You have to head back to the world you dropped him at (Fez) after a few days.

I'll change it to make it more obvious, maybe a notification starting the mission whenever the delay has passed.

I finished the mission some further, then I'm told to chase some big bird guy down, he says something from his ship when I hail him, then runs off? where do I have to go after that? Back to the planet name I cant remember?

Release 0.4.5:- new "Great Survey" info panel- surveyed worlds are now marked as such- main storyline is now a little easier to follow- fixed a bug where the info panels were not showing in the loading screens

Release 0.4.6:- Expended and improved missions for Empire & Ardar- Info panel detailing the current situation in the storyline of the player- Reworked, more lucrative trade system- New CPU-boosting outfits- Random NPCs in bars with tips and lore- Descriptions for bars on random worlds- Fixed slow torpedoes- Many tweaks and fixes

Just found this after going on a 2D space sim spree, great stuff and can't wait for more updates. My favorite 2D space sim on the market so far and I've been playing: VoidExpanse, SPAZ, Naev, Endless Sky, and EV. Keep it up!!

Sure, keep in mind that a lot of these games are very similar in gameplay and the little things are what differentiates them from each other. These are the thing that stuck out to me about Nox Imperii compared to the others:

*I like the hyperspace jump system in Nox compared to Endless Sky due to the use of jump gates. I feel that in ES, the process of getting from point A to B is too simplified and doesn't encourage exploration within a system. In ES I simply select my target on the map screen, then press J a few times, pray no pirates are waiting for me when I exit hyperspace (if there are, die instantly and start process all over), then press L to land. There not much strategy or gameplay involved in this and I fly through missions & trips almost instantly.

In Nox I have to actually travel through a system to get to the jumpgate to the next system. This offers opportunity for exploration and encounters. I have to actually think about the route through a particular system, sometimes forgoing the direct route from gate to gate, and travelling the edge of the map to avoid pirates. When I arrive at a location, I feel like I've actually accomplished something, not just pressing a few keys.

I'm a little conflicted about the difference between Naev & Nox in jump systems. I actually kind of like the fact that you had to search for jump routes in Naev, but it can get frustrating and in particular situations (systems with no way to get a local map, and no way of knowing whether you've discovered everything there is to discover in the system). I also think your approach of uncovering all jump routes solves this issue but also takes away a bit of the discovery. Maybe something in between where certain routes are uncovered but some are left to be discovered by the player would be a nice addition.

*The combat in Nox & Naev is mile ahead of ES. The battles in Nox can last long enough to actual be quite tactical, while in ES they are over before you have a chance to react. I like the fact that in Nox, if I see an enemy I can choose to run or engage and have time to actually pull off some evasive maneuvers. This had led to some interesting and memorable encounters, using afterburners, other ships and whatever's at my disposal to run from that one pirate in a Shark, good stuff.

This is just a start and I'll post some more feedback as I get further into the game and have time to capture my thoughts, but all in all I am thoroughly enjoying the experience and will continue to play when I get tired of Elite Dangerous. Thanks for making this and keep it up.

I definitely agree on the ES jump system, it's too simple and also makes the system seems entirely concentrated at the center. Makes a mess of fighting as well.

Regarding whether to have to search for jumps or not in Nox I've went back on forth on the topic. I like the idea also, but ultimately I felt that Nox's bigger universe would just be too cumbersome to explore if you had to hunt for jumps in each and every system. I might eventually tweak it so that jumps have to be discovered in unexplored systems (i.e. beyond civilized space).

Yeah, fighting in ES is disappointing. Too fast and arcade-style. The only choices are in the weapon load-outs.

Sound and music are a big plus for Nox. You never now how much background music adds to the ambiance of an experience until there is none. A quick question, are the boarding mechanics similar to Naev where you can only pillage credits from disabled crafts? Also, do you have any plans to add in mining, salvaging or smuggling illegal goods?

Boarding currently works like Naev. I'm planning to add salvage of outfits; ship capture is a much bigger project, I'd like to but it's far down my list. Btw for now if you give me some inputs on how well boarding pays or not one thing I can do is adjust the money amounts. In Naev they were quite low I think, not sure I changed it.

If by mining you mean asteroid mining, that's also something I like but it's also far down the list. Illegal goods are rather higher up the same list.

And I'll trust you for the music, I always have mine in the background instead

The boarding mechanic is fine, especially if you add the salvage of outfits to boarding. Ship capture is nice but not a necessity (to me of course). What I am referring to in my previous post was salvage from randomly generated derelict ships or stations.

I'll explain my reasoning for this: There's not really much reason to fully explore a system because the only thing available for the players to find are pirates and jump points which are already revealed on the map. This lead to a gameplay loop where you are just going from point A to B completing tasks, occasionally stopping to fend off pirates and barbarians. Randomly generated lootable objects would give players some incentive to explore the actual systems, which could open up all sorts of encounters.

This could lead to more encounters with enemies because you're actually in the system more; there could be missions associated with these derelicts, there could even be a trap.

I think mechanics like this are often passed over by most space sims in favor of a focus on combat, trading, and story, but the need for exploration, mystery, and discovery are key to any space experience. I appreciate that you have already added some features like the Great Survey that encourages players to explore beyond inhabited space. Just a thought and thank you for being so responsive to my feedback, your work is amazing and I hope to see it progress in the future. Thanks...